Opinion: Harder on welfare recipients

Congressional Republicans have taken George Bush's plan to extend welfare-reform and made it marginally better. The major welfare-reform reauthorization bill, which the House is expected to vote on today, does offer a bit more cushion for welfare recipients, and flexibility for the states, than Bush had proposed. But it still contains the same basic flaw of the administration's plan: It raises the bar for mothers and the states without providing the resources they need to reach it.

The bill requires states to move more welfare recipients into work (70 percent of their caseloads, up from 50) and force mothers to work 40 hours a week (up from 30). Expecting more work has been the touchstone of welfare reform and should remain so. But the plan increases work requirements while narrowing the activities that qualify and offering no new day-care money for working mothers. Even the nation's Republican governors are chafing under the prospect, for fear the new mandates will prove difficult to meet and counterproductive to the goal of pulling recipients out of poverty, not merely putting them to work.

After five years, Congress should be solidifying welfare reform's successes -- not exacerbating its weaknesses. Since 1996, most welfare recipients have indeed left the public dole for a job. But only a small segment earn enough to support themselves and their families. For them, concentrated job training or school may be the only hope to long-term success. While the bill allows a portion of the 40 hours to be spent in training or education, it would allow just one semester of school every two years. Welfare reform's "work first" strategy is in danger of becoming "work only."

Though President Bush has rightly resisted calls to cut overall funding, the plan includes no new money, even for inflation. Unless Congress puts more on the table (Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., has said she will offer an amendment for extra day-care funds), the new work requirement could cost state taxpayers $8-billion in additional child-care costs alone, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy. And that money may buy less meaningful work. Experts warn that some states might be forced to create massive "make-work" projects, abandoning more successful job-search programs in the process.

Florida could come out better than most states, because its dramatic caseload reductions would qualify for a "superachiever credit." But other states' poor would undoubtedly feel the pinch. This is only the first test of Bush's plan. There is still hope that it -- like welfare-reform itself -- can be improved.

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